Prone to Wander

Have you ever walked from one room to another only to forget what you meant to do when you got there? You lost sight of your purpose in just a few seconds. We can so quickly become distracted by the busyness of life, by the zillions of thoughts and ideas that our minds conceive in the course of a day.

I think we can all identify times when we aren’t focused on what we need to be paying attention to. We all get distracted. Our minds wander. We so easily forget what we were saying and what we were doing. Our attention gets derailed and we have to stop and try to recapture the moment to get back on track. And unfortunately, the older we get, the more this seems to happen!

The Lord knows this about us. When it comes to keeping our hearts from wandering from Him, He prompted the Psalmist to write these words: “With all my heart I have sought you; do not let me wander from Your commandments.”(Psalm 119:10) And in verse 21, “You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, who wander from Your commandments.” In verse 118 he writes, “You have rejected all those who wander from Your statutes, for their deceitfulness is useless.”

While it is obvious that God understands our propensity to wander, He certainly doesn’t take it lightly. The verses above present a pretty strong case to cry out to God to keep you from wandering!

Robert Robinson, writer of the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” expressed the urgency of our need when he wrote:

O to grace how great a debtorDaily I’m constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.

The word “seal” means to mark or secure. This hymn verse is something we would do well to pray daily. We certainly need the Lord’s help to keep our hearts from wandering; to keep seeking Him without distraction.

2 Chronicles 15:15 gives us an example of what God will do if we keep our hearts centered on Him: “All of Judah rejoiced concerning the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart and had sought Him earnestly and He let them find Him. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.”

The Lord let them find Him! And he gave them rest.
Lord, seal my heart for Your kingdom and never let me wander!